Textual Analysis of a Film Poster - Ryan

The Skeleton Key is a 2005 American supernatural horror film starring Kate Hudson, Gena Rowlands, John Hurt, Peter Sarsgaard and Joy Bryant. The film focuses on a young hospice nurse who acquires a job at a Terrebonne Parish plantation home, and becomes entangled in a mystery involving the house, its former inhabitants, and the rituals and magic that took place there.

The poster for this film shows an extreme close up shot of an eye which has been manipulated to show the back of a person in a wheelchair facing a big old house within the eye, making this the focal point of the poster. The colours used for this poster design are dark, consisting mainly of black, white and grey tones. This could connote that the film is very dark and instantly allows the audience to recognise the genre of the film.

This poster also consists of text, however not too much. The first text layer is positioned horizontally across the top half of the poster reading “KATE HUDSON”. The lettering for this text layer is small and spread out, allowing the two words to stretch across the poster. This text layer tells the audience who the main actress is that stars in this film. By adding the name of the main star or stars  to the poster it becomes more than just a visual. This text allows the audience to interact with the poster, gaining an understanding of who will be in the film.

The next text layer on this poster is the title of the film – “THE SKELETON KEY” which is positioned just below the eye. This text is much bolder and bigger in size than the previous text layer. This allows the audience to recognise this as the title of the film, as it stands out much more than any other text.

The last text layer for this poster is the small print. The small print is located at the bottom of the poster design and appears so small that it is barely readable. The reason for this is because this text contains information about the film which most of the audience will not find important or interesting. Amongst this text layer is the release that of the film “AUGUST 12” which is slightly larger to make it stand out.